Controversy over whether or not Americans are exempt from a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act bill, set to be voted on this week by the Senate, which defines the the entirety of the United States as a battleground in the war on terror, has been addressed by Republican Congressman Justin Amash, who warns that the bill does apply to U.S. citizens.

As we previously reported, under the ‘worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial’ provision of S.1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which is set to be up for a vote on the Senate floor this week, the legislation will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who supports the bill.

That provoked concerns that American citizens could be targeted as terrorists and indefinitely detained without trial or charge.

“One section of these provisions, section 1031, would be interpreted as allowing the military to capture and indefinitely detain American citizens on U.S. soil. Section 1031 essentially repeals the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 by authorizing the U.S. military to perform law enforcement functions on American soil. That alone should alarm my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but there are other problems with these provisions that must be resolved,” Colorado Senator Mark Udall said in a speech earlier this month.

Following an ACLU alert on the legislation, some pointed out that the text of the bill actually exempts Americans from being detained under the new “homeland battlefield” designation under the proviso that “the requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.”

However, as Republican Congressman Justin Amash told the The Grand Rapids Press today, the language of the bill is “carefully crafted to mislead the public.”

“Note that it does not preclude U.S. citizens from being detained indefinitely, without charge or trial, it simply makes such detention discretionary,” Amash wrote on his Facebook page.

The controversy over whether or not the text of the bill suggests the legislation applies to U.S. citizens is largely inconsequential given the fact that every piece of anti-terror legislation passed since 9/11 has been used against Americans, both at home and abroad.

Furthermore, as Ron Paul has pointed out, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen who has never been charged with any crime, was the victim of extrajudicial killing because of the same unconstitutional legalese that defines the entire globe as a “battlefield,” where the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens are declared null and void if they are designated as terrorists by the federal government.

Recall that José Padilla, an American citizen, was held without charge for 3 and a half years as an “enemy combatant” and denied a trial in civilian court, after being accused of planning to detonate a “dirty bomb,” an accusation that was enough to keep Padilla in a military brig for over three years yet was never proven.

As far back as December 2002, the Washington Post reported that a “parallel legal system” had been put in place under the auspices of the war on terror, in which terrorism suspects — U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike — may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system.”

The “battlefield” provision of the NDAA is nothing new, it is merely an updating of existing policy that has been applied to American citizens on numerous occasions over the last decade.

The difference is that the danger of American citizens being detained without trial as terrorists on frivolous pretexts is an even greater danger now given that the Department of Homeland Security has characterized behavior such as buying gold, owning guns, using a watch or binoculars, donating to charity, using the telephone or email to find information, using cash, and all manner of mundane behaviors as potential indicators of domestic terrorism.

*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.

Marti Oakley (c)copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved

______________________________________________

Many of us have wondered if directed to; would our own military turn on us? It appears that this is the plan and has been all along, yet the question remains……would they actually do it if ordered to?

S.1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill. Senators Carl Levin (D) MI and John McCain (R) AZ, are bringing this bill to the Senate floor on

S.1867 The end of Liberty

Monday after having held secret committee meetings while never holding even one hearing on this bill which authorizes military action against US citizens, right here in the United States.

While the bill appears on the surface to be about authorizing defense funding for the illegal wars, the ongoing unwarranted surveillance of the US population and the continuing violations of the 4th Amendment as applied to US citizens, many of the provisions of the bill do not pertain to unidentifiable terrorists or any other villain carefully crafted to terrorize the country. The fact is, as a result of the false flag attacks on 9/11, we have massive numbers of police state “laws” on the books which created “terrorists” or redefined “terrorist activity” to include everything from political dissent and free speech, even including targeting of US citizens for mentioning or referencing the Constitution or supporting third party, non-approved candidates for public office.

When this bill passes with these police state provisions included (I believe it will) you can expect your senator who voted “yes” on the bill to maintain that they only did so because otherwise the funding for the wars would have ceased (we could only hope) and they have to continue to fight the terrorists, terrorism, or what ever lame excuse pops into their heads to explain why they voted to pass what is clearly a police state bill.

The bill itself was drafted in secret and I believe it would be to our benefit to know who actually drafted that bill.

Who were the “stakeholders” who actually wrote the bill introduced by these two traitorous senators. We know they didn’t write it, they never do. All bills are written by stakeholders who blow through the doors of congress carry bags of cash to buy the support of politicians who make their living selling off our rights along with anything else that isn’t nailed down.

1) Explicitly authorize the federal government to indefinitely imprison without charge or trial American citizens and others picked up inside and outside theUnited States;

(2) Mandate military detention of some civilians who would otherwise be outside of military control, including civilians picked up within the United States itself; and

(3) Transfer to the Department of Defense core prosecutorial, investigative, law enforcement, penal, and custodial authority and responsibility now held by the Department of Justice.

The Washington Post of course did its part to make sure it appeared this bill was about “terrorists”, who could be held indefinitely, who could be subject to extraordinary rendition (transferred to countries like Egypt for extensive torture) and glossed over or totally avoided mentioning the fact that the provisions of this bill could be applied, and are actually intended to be applied to US citizens on US soil.

The language of the bill is intentionally very broadly written to allow later interpretations that will be used to redefine yet again, our rights, our protections, striking each one down under the false flag use of “the war of terror”.

In the last several years we have seen the militarization of our local law enforcement under the direction of Homeland Security. We now have major US cities armed with military tanks, drones, and outfitted like star wars storm troopers; all for use against US citizens in their own communities. Local law enforcement has been remade into extended military units to enable them to become a working military unit in tandem with military control. These law enforcement units have ceased operating as “protect and serve” civil service operations and instead have become direct threats to the communities which are forced to endure them. The escalating violence against the citizens, the abrogation of rights, the violation of standing laws and the protection provided to these units by the courts should have us all demanding an end to Homeland Security interference in local law enforcement activities and reverting law enforcement back to one of community protection and service.

We have seen the creation of the White House Rural Council along with other newly created agencies that all include the military as part of their structure. This is no accident. There is no plausible reason the military would be included in any Council making preparations to unlawfully enter into the states, unless military action against the citizenry was anticipated.

S.1867 is a catch all bill. Its intention is to make legal (not lawful) the crime of unlawful detention without due process. By extension, the bill would condone the practice of extraordinary rendition for the purpose of torture of US citizens who could be kidnapped from our streets without being charged with a crime, having access to the courts for redress (the bill condones the military holding tribunals outside of the US court system at its discretion) and holding US citizens indefinitely without charging them with any crime.

This bill is one of the final steps necessary in striking down any remaining Constitutional protections or rights, all under the phony war of terror being perpetrated by our own government against its own citizens. This is not a right or left, Democrat or Republican plan……they are all in it together. They will all vote for it together knowing full well that it is an assault on the people of the US.

In my opinion, it is an open declaration of war against the people by our own government.